The thickness of the brain's cerebral cortex could be a key to unlocking answers about intellectual development in youth with Down syndrome. It could also provide new insights to why individuals with this genetic neurodevelopmental disorder are highly susceptible to early onset Alzheimer's disease later in life.

Children living in low-income households who endure family instability and emotionally distant caregivers are at risk of having impaired cognitive abilities according to new research from the University of Rochester.

We spend most of our lives trying to be as happy as possible, but a team of researchers in Israel has explored how we sometimes appear to find, if not pleasure exactly, at least a certain satisfaction in sharing moments of sadness with others.

Drugs commonly prescribed for social anxiety could be making the problem worse. Social anxiety disorder is linked to higher levels of serotonin in the brain, not lower as previously thought. People with both social anxiety actually produce more of ...

New approach to cause of depression may help treatment using established therapies.
It’s often assumed that depression causes a pessimistic view of the future. But it could be the other way around, a new study finds. Being pessimistic about the ...

On the morning of August 12, 2013, nearly eight months after 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and killed 26 people, Michael Mudry, an investigator with the Connecticut State Police, drove to ...

Researchers at Monash University have found physical differences in the brains of people who respond emotionally to others’ feelings, compared to those who respond more rationally, in a study published in the journal NeuroImage.

A newly published series of experiments by cognitive neuroscientists at New York University is reinforcing the relevance of facial expressions to perceptions of characteristics such as trustworthiness and friendliness. More importantly, the research ...

When someone who you like gives a hug or tenders affection, experiment with letting it in. Be a cat. Get out of your head and be mindfully present with how it feels in your body to receive affection from a loved one. Whether from a cat or human, ...

Studying mice, scientists have identified a neural circuit in the retina that carries signals enabling the eye to detect movement. The finding could help in efforts to build artificial retinas for people who have suffered vision loss.

Women under chronic stress have significantly lower levels of klotho, a hormone that regulates aging and enhances cognition, researchers have found in a study comparing mothers of children on the autism spectrum to low-stress controls.

Teenagers who are incarcerated tend to have substantially worse outcomes later in life than those who avoid serving time for similar offenses, according to a distinctive new study co-authored by an MIT scholar.

Surprisingly, alcohol is not bad for all types of memory. Alcohol can actually help some areas of the brain learn and remember. While it’s true that alcohol is generally bad for conscious memory, it can boost unconscious memory. This may help ...